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Nothing beats fresh, locally made ice cream from the heart of America’s Dairyland. Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream has an amazing inventory of unique, delectable ice cream flavors that are top-notch.

Chocolate Shoppe worker Sarah Bewitz said the two most popular flavors of Chocolate Shoppe ice cream are Zanzibar Chocolate and Heaps of Love. The only way to describe Zanzibar Chocolate is chocolate to the max. It tastes like a fudge brownie, as the website confirms, but unlike Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food, it has no fudge chunks or marshmallows, just solid my-heart-skipped-a-beat chocolaty goodness.

Heaps of Love picks up where Zanzibar Chocolate lacks in mixed-in flavors. It is a vanilla ice cream base with caramel and chocolate swirled in along with a blend of cookie dough, Oreos, brownie chunks and pecans (read: the best of everything). I ordered Heaps of Love before I read the flavor list completely and was amazed when each bite became an adventure with so many delicious ingredients.

In the seasonal flavor category, Chocolate Shoppe was offering Caramel Apple Pie, (cinnamon ice cream full of apple slices and caramel) and Snap-O-Lantern (pumpkin ice cream with pieces of ginger snap cookies). Although Apple Pie paled in comparison to Apple Pie ? la Cold Stone ice cream, Snap-O-Lantern tasted remarkably like a pumpkin pie.

According to Chocolate Shoppe’s website, Chocolateshoppeicecream.com, Chuck and Nancy Deadman founded the company in 1962 in the Madison area as a candy and ice cream shop. There are currently three factory-owned retail stores in Madison (now selling only ice cream), and Chocolate Shoppe ice cream is sold in 11 states, from Minnesota to Louisiana. The factory (at 2221 Daniels St. Madison) produces 110 flavors of ice cream including Green Tea, Cake Batter Fudge, Chocolate Raspberry Truffle, Blueberry Cheesecake and Yippee Skippee (peanut butter ice cream with brownies and chocolate covered pretzels). Chocolate Shoppe also offers gelato, sherbet, frozen yogurt and ice cream cakes that combine the delicious ice cream with real cake and frosting.

In honor of the Nov. 4 history-making election, Chocolate Shoppe is hosting an election of its own — all you have to do to vote is eat ice cream. For every person ordering mint chip ice cream, Barack Obama (Democrat) is given a vote. Ordering chocolate ice cream means a vote for John McCain (Republican), Raspberry Rhapsody is a vote for Cynthia McKinney (Green Party) and vanilla is a vote for Bob Barr (Libertarian).

“We actually contacted all the candidates and they got to choose their flavor, or their people chose the flavor. … Cynthia McKinney actually came into the store and had some ice cream,” Bewitz said.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Obama was in the lead with 272 mint chip eaters. Whether that says more about our city’s political views or good taste in ice cream is debatable.

What effect would eating Chocolate Shoppe’s ice cream every day to vote for your candidate fit into a nice 2,000 calorie per day diet? A sign inside the store humorously removes any doubt. “Nutritional Information: Don’t even ask. This is the best ice cream made in Wisconsin, and it tastes so good because it has gobs of rich Wisconsin cream, tons of real ingredients for boatloads of luscious flavors. … You want nutrition, eat carrots.”

4 stars out of 5